Pattnaik’s work will focus on the two areas she is most interested in: The education sector (a space that’s top of mind to Pattnaik, who came to the U.S. years ago to go to college) and what’s often referred to as the “collaborative consumption” space, made popular by companies like Airbnb, Uber and others.

“A lot of the traditional value chains of these industries are being disintermediated so that the consumer can be directly connected to the platform,” Pattnaik said in an interview. “This is going to happen across many other industries.”

Previous to her new position, Pattnaik spent the better part of two years at Twitter, where she worked on the company’s revenue team and was responsible for the overall social commerce strategy. Prior to Twitter, Pattnaik worked for Google on its commerce initiatives, including Google Offers, was a social games director of product management at Electronic Arts, and held various product roles at Yahoo and Microsoft.

Pattnaik joins former Twitter colleague Anamitra Banerji, a partner at the firm who signed on earlier this year, as well as five other current entrepreneurs in residence. Foundation also added Adit Singh of Comcast Ventures and Jonathan Ehrlich of Facebook in 2013.

Just as the atom bomb was the weapon that was supposed to render war obsolete, the Internet seems like capitalism’s ultimate feat of self-destructive genius, an economic doomsday device rendering it impossible for anyone to ever make a profit off anything again. It’s especially hopeless for those whose work is easily digitized and accessed free of charge.

— Author Tim Kreider on not getting paid for one’s work

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